A GANGSTER rapper who boasted about guns in YouTube videos has been jailed for 11 years for shooting an innocent member of the public in a random attack.

Aron Thomas, 23, of Bramall Court, Georges Road, Holloway, fired eight rounds down a busy street from a 9mm handgun.

Thomas repeatedly shouted “f*** Wood Green” during the indiscriminate shooting, and one of the bullets struck Lloyd Wisdom in the leg as he ran to his car.

Mr Wisdom, who was completely unknown to Thomas, needed surgery to remove part of the bullet from his leg and remained in hospital for two days, but miraculously recovered.

Nobody else was injured during the incident after 12.30am on February 28 this year in Buller Road, Wood Green, but “people ran literally for their lives”.

Thomas, who raps under the name Vipex, is said to have wanted revenge out of a “misguided sense of loyalty to family and friends” after his brother got in to trouble in the area.

Terrified members of the public were forced to cower behind bins, others ran for cover and one group fled in to the kitchens of a kebab shop to escape the gunfire.

Prosecutor Adrian Darbishire said there was a “striking consistency” with the incident to lyrics rapped by Thomas in videos police retrieved from file sharing website YouTube.

In one verse, rapping under the name Vipex, Thomas says: “I bust my gun quick like premature ejaculation. I back out my ting and start a quick evacuation.

“Your lung get punctured quick, I leave you slumped and stiff.”

Thomas was arrested on March 5. He was due to face trial last month for attempted murder, but pleaded guilty to causing grievous harm with intent and possession of a firearm with intent to endanger life.

In 2005, Thomas was jailed for 42 months for kidnapping and attempted robbery. He was also given a seven-month sentence for affray in 2007 for his part in a group attack outside a nightclub in Seven Sisters Road, Holloway.

Adrienne Knight, defending, said Thomas “isn’t all bad”.

The Recorder of London Judge Peter Beaumont QC told Thomas: “You took the law in to your own hands to settle a quarrel that wasn’t yours.

“You opened fire, causing people to run for cover and, most seriously of all, a completely innocent man, minding his own business was shot and seriously injured.”

Thomas was given six years for wounding with intent and five years for the firearms charge.

The two sentences will be served consecutively.